Model-Based Teaching and Learning with BioLogica™: What Do They Learn? How Do They Learn? How Do We Know?

Abstract

This paper describes part of a project called Modeling Across the Curriculum which is a largescale research study in 15 schools across the United States. The specific data presented and discussed here in this paper is based on BioLogica, a hypermodel, interactive environment for learning genetics, which was implemented in multiple classes in eight high schools. BioLogica activities, data logging, and assessments were refined across this series of implementations. All students took a genetics content knowledge pre-and posttests. Traces of students' actions and responses to computer-based tasks were electronically collected (via a "log file" function) and systematically analyzed. An intensive 3-day field test involving 24 middle school students served to refine methods and create narrative profiles of students' learning experiences, outcomes, and interactions with BioLogica. We report on one high school implementation and the field test as self-contained studies to document the changes and the outcomes at different phases of development. A discussion of design changes concludes this paper.KEY WORDS: genetics; model-based learning; interactive environments; data logging; technologyenhanced assessment.With support from NSF, the Concord Consortium developed an interactive, computer-based learning environment, BioLogica, that is designed to support students in high school classrooms to build a deep understanding of core concepts in Mendelian genetics. The pedagogical challenges are numerous. What do we mean by deep understanding? How can we help them develop deep understanding? How do we know when they've done so? This paper focuses on the learning that takes place when students use BioLogica, an interactive genetics curriculum, in their high 1 The Concord Consortium, 10 Concord Crossing, Suite 300, Concord, Massachusetts 01742. 2 Educational Designs Unlimited, Inc., Hillsborough, New Jersey. 3 School of Eduation and Social Policy, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois. 4 Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 5 To whom correspondence should be addressed; e-mail: bbuckley@concord.org school classrooms. It presents the model of learning we use, what this looks like in practice, how we determine the nature and extent of student learning when BioLogica is used in high school classrooms, and what we've learned about all of the above. MODEL-BASED LEARNINGThe theory we employ is an elaboration and extension of Model-Based Teaching and Learning (MBTL) set forth in a special issue of the International Journal of Science Education (Gobert and Buckley, 2000). The tenets of model-based learning are based on the presupposition that understanding requires the construction of mental models of the phenomena under study, and that all subsequent problem-solving, inferencing, or reasoning are done by means of manipulating or "running" these mental models (Johnson-Laird, 1983). We view mental models as internal, cognitive representations used in Buckley, Gobert, Kindfield, Horwitz, Tinker, ...

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